Dear Families and Students,

I hope everyone had a rejuvenating Thanksgiving Break! We are ready to finish the second quarter on a strong note.

Leading the way is OSS 8th grader, Anaya V., who won a European river cruise from AAA's National Essay Contest. Well done! Also this week 11th graders Micah B. and Joshua I. represented OSHS at the I/ITSEC conference with their cyber security program. In addition to these high achieving students, these OSHS teachers were recognized last month for being ORCAS teachers of strong character: Ms. Leal, Ms. Mulligan, Mr. Stampas and Ms. Stevens. Congratulations to these leaders!

Thank you to all of our parents and guardians who attended our OSHS Barnes and Noble Book Fair. Families enjoyed a robotics demonstration, our ELA Awards Ceremony and a Steampunk Fashion Show. It was a ton of fun and our Media Center will benefit from the proceeds. We would also like to thank our families that attended the 2nd Quarter Parent Teacher Conference Nights this week. I understand how important these opportunities are to both our teachers and families. As a reminder you may reach out to your student's teachers at anytime and arrange a conference, we are here to help!

As we approach the season of giving, please know that we are now accepting donations towards our OSS Middle/High Holiday Teacher and Staff Gifts. This is a wonderful opportunity to help us show our teachers and staff members how much we appreciate them by donating gift cards or by making a monetary donation so that we can purchase gift cards. More information and the SchoolPay link is below.

Save the Date: I would like to invite all of our families to the OSHS 1st Semester Student Award Ceremony. You can find the details below, I hope to see you all there.

I wish you a safe and wonderful weekend!

Respectfully,

Abdulaziz Yalcin, M.Ed

Principal

Orlando Science Schools-Middle/High

OSHS 8th grader Ananya V. participated in AAA's 1st ever Discovery Crew Contest for 8th graders. This is a national essay writing contest hosted by AAA and AmaWaterways. We are proud to announce Anaya has won an 8 day European river cruise throughout Amsterdam and Belgium. This is an educational tour to learn different cultures diversity and a chance to mingle with other students in Amsterdam. We wish her safe travels and congratulations!

Two students, Micah B. and Joshua I., along with Mr. Soto, attended the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA), a division of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC). The Future Leaders Pavilion provides a venue for secondary school students to demonstrate technical projects they have developed which focus on research, modeling, simulation and training. The Pavilion also enables the students to experience the sights, sounds and learning about high-end, critical technology only available at I/ITSEC.

The two students researched and created a project related to Cyber Security and how to easily train individuals to identify threats to their network with the help of Artificial Intelligence. The two types of threats they worked on identifying were SQL Injections and DDoS attacks. While their project and presentation was not recognized as one of the top three, they had an incredible experience at the conference. They were able to see the newest technology in the Modeling and Simulation industry, network with other future leaders, current engineers, projects managers and executives from companies and organizations across the world.

Congratulations to these stellar OSHS teachers with character! You are appreciated, thank you for representing what it means to be an ORCAS teacher of character.

Ms. Stevens-Strive for excellence

Mr. Stampas-Outreach towards community

Ms. Leal-Strive for excellence

Ms. Mulligan-Respect and Compassion for all (not pictured)

Thank you to all of our parents and guardians who attended our OSHS Barnes and Noble Book Fair. Families enjoyed a robotics demonstration, our ELA Awards Ceremony and a Steampunk Fashion Show. It was a ton of fun and our Media Center will benefit from the proceeds!

OSS’s College Mentorship Program (CMP) is a voluntary mentorship program designed to help qualified students improve their skills in academics, personal development and college and career readiness areas. This past week’s camp at a Davenport villa retreat was a part this program. Students studied hard as well as having fun and enjoying good food! It was a great weekend! Sincerely, Mr. I

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As the holidays are approaching, it is time to prepare our annual gift bags for our Orlando Science Middle High teachers and staff members!

Help us show our teachers and staff members how much we appreciate them by donating gift cards or by making a monetary donation so that we can purchase gift cards for them. Popular gift cards are Target, Barnes & Noble, Publix and Amazon.

Gift card donations may be dropped off at the front desk and monetary donations may be provided using the SCHOOLPAY link below. Donations of $5, $10, $15 and $20 are best.

As always, we are thankful for your support and wish you a Happy Holiday Season!

ORANGE COUNTY MATH TOURNAMENT (OCMT)

The Mu Alpha Theta Honor Society of Orlando Science High School invites all 4th and 5th grade Orange County students to compete at the Orange County Math Tournament (OCMT) to be held on Saturday, December 8th, 2018.

Registration is now open! If you would like to register your student for this year's Invitational, visit the Registration page and fill out the form with your student's information. Registration will be available until Monday, December 3rd, 2018.

Registration must be completed online no later than Monday, December 3rd, 2018. Registration fee is $15 for each student and should be paid online via School Pay. The competition is open to first 250 students who applied.

Competition will take place at Orlando Science Elementary School campus which is located at 2601 Technology Drive, Orlando FL 32804.

We encourage all schools to participate, regardless of whether they currently have math teams or not. In Competition Math, any topics can and do arise. There are no guidelines or hints about how to solve the problems, so it truly is an opportunity to express and develop individual creativity and problem solving skills. However, in order to prepare your students, you may look at the past years’ questions.

We hope you will find this competition a rewarding mathematical experience for your students, and we look forward to your participation at our Invitational on December 8th.

If you have any questions, please contact us at ossmualphatheta@gmail.com

Mathcerely,

Mr. Akyalcin

Our School System has recently updated our accounts on LinkedIn would love for you to join our network! Please see below for links to the official LinkedIn Company Pages for each of our campuses and feel free to share with current families and alumni.

• Orlando Science Schools (K-12): https://www.linkedin.com/company/orlando-science-schools/
  
• Osceola Science Charter School (K-8): https://www.linkedin.com/company/osceola-science-charter-school/
  
• Seminole Science Charter School (K-8): https://www.linkedin.com/company/seminole-science-charter-school/

FAFSA is the Federal Student Aid program. Every single college applicant needs to complete FAFSA regardless of their income. This application is free and completed through only one website. Do not pay to anyone or any website for completion of FAFSA. This should take no more than 45 minutes to complete if you have everything ready to go. FAFSA is time sensitive. The funds are distributed as first come first serve.

State of Florida has its own scholarship program called Bright Futures and it is managed through OSFA (Office of Student Financial Assistance). When you complete the application, you are also being evaluated for other scholarships through State of Florida. It is a very short application and should not take more than 15 minutes. Most important thing to know is that, you only complete the form and your transcript and SAT/ACT scores will be submitted automatically through OSS and the State of Florida University System. You are not required to satisfy all the application requirements until the end of the school year to apply to this scholarship. On the other hand, being qualified currently does not guarantee that you will receive this scholarship. If your end of year GPA falls under the requirement, then you will not be receiving the scholarship. Here are the current requirements:

Senior yearbook ads are now available!

Purchase an advertisement for your senior today. Include pictures and a short message for your student before they graduate. After payment is made be sure to email your pictures and your message to Ms. Lizarazo to make sure the correct information is placed in the yearbook.

Full page ad:

https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/FULL-PAGE-Senior-Yearbook--Advertisement-/IdDLy

1/2 page ad:

https://www.schoolpay.com/pay/for/HALF-PAGE-Senior-Yearbook--Advertisement-/IdDLx

Due date is March 29, 2019

Congratulations to Osceola Science Charter School on their move to a new campus! The K-8 school is relocating to a brand-new facility on the border of Osceola and Orange counties for the 2019-2020 school year. The new, 70,000-square-foot campus features STEM and science labs, a media center, music classroom, performing arts lab, regular classrooms, a playground, basketball court, and football field.

Parents, please help spread the word among your community that Osceola Science Charter School (OSCS) is now accepting applications for Grades K-6 for the 2019-2020 school year. Details, including the Online Application and Open House dates, can be found on the school’s website: www.osceolascience.org.

Congratulations again to OSCS and the growth of our Orlando Science School family!

The Orlando Science High School on Technology Drive opened its doors to a newly renovated campus in August 2018. One of the great features of the High School campus is the brand new Media Center. It serves as a space where all students can read, research and study. Please consider making a donation directly to the Media Center to help Mrs. Singleton stock the shelves and create a welcoming environment for our students.

As always the Amazon Wishlist link below contains the most current requests from our staff and students. Thank you to the Akin and Mallonee families for your generous contribution!

This is an easy way to help raise money for Orlando Science Schools. Use the link below when shopping from Amazon. AmazonSmile donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Orlando Science Schools via Discovery Education Services, Inc. whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.

Office Depot provides the school with 5% back in credits for FREE supplies when you make a purchase of qualifying school supplies. Simply provide the school ID at checkout.

OSES School Code: 70228302

OSS School Code: 70218341

Hello OSS Families! Please remember that BOX TOPS are a wonderful FREE way to raise funds for our school. Each Box Top is worth $.10 and they really add up. Please make sure to continuously send these in so that I can mail them before their expiration dates. The monies received go to supporting our academic and sport teams, the PLTW (Project Lead the Way) along with many other OSS programs and classroom needs. If you would like to learn more about the Box Tops program go to www.btfe.com. Please register or login today. Make sure that you designate Orlando Science Schools as your school support.

To see a complete list of products go to: https://www.boxtops4education.com/earn/participating-products

Also, it is very important to check those expiration dates. We do not receive any credit for expired Box Tops.

Thank you so much for your support of Orlando Science Middle High School. For questions or thoughts please email me at jmallonee@cfl.rr.com.

Happy Clipping!

Denise Mallonee

Dear Orlando Science Lynx Lane and Technology High School Families,

It is time to join the Parent Volunteer Organization (PVO). Membership is $25 per family for returning families and $30 for new families, your membership dues go directly back into the school to provide items and supplies for our teachers. We are also asking that PVO members work with specific committees (School Improvement, Fundraising, Volunteer Work, Teacher Appreciation, Events, Etc.) Please utilize the SCHOOL PAY link below to pay your dues.

If you have questions, comments, or requests, you may email OSS.PVO@orlandoscience.org . A formal PVO committee, including president and vice-president, will be announced at the end of the first quarter of the 2018-2019 School Year. PVO will hold bi-monthly meetings that will inform parents of progress, agendas, and upcoming events.

Thank you for all of your help and support as we look forward to a great year.

OSS Connect is your one stop for student grades, assignments and resources. Students use their credentials to log in and there you can access a wealth of information.

If you are an ADDitions approved volunteer, OSHS can use your help! We are looking for parents or responsible adults over the age of 18 to help during lunch times (approximately 11am-1pm) and during car line before and after school. Please contact Ms. Foley to schedule the exact time slots. All volunteers must complete the ADDitions application is here: https://ocps.samaritan.com/custom/503/ beforehand. Thank you for all you do to help make OSHS great!

If you have a student with any medical conditions such as asthma, anaphylaxis, diabetes or any other serious medical conditions, please contact Mrs. Foley via email ASAP for the paperwork that is needed for the 2018-2019 school year.

Orcas who walk or take the LYNX Transportation bus service must have a "Walker/Bus Rider" form on file. Return completed forms to Ms. Foley.

Orcas interested in dressing down for their birthday MUST submit a "Dress Down Day" form(found below) to Mrs. Foley at least two business days prior to the requested dress down date.

Technology Drive High School Orcas Families please make sure to review the Dress Code with your students. Dress Code may be found on page 29 in the OSS Handbook HS 2018-2019 below.

December's lunch menu will be provided as soon as it becomes available.

Families whose Free/Reduced lunch applications have expired, please take a moment and fill out the OCPS Free/Reduced Meal Application today! It must be completed each year to qualify for this federally funded program. To fill out the application click the link below.

Email: info@orlandoscience.org
Website: www.orlandoscience.org
Location: 2600 Technology Drive, Orlando, FL, USA
Phone: (407)299-6595
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orlandoscience/
Twitter: @OrlandoSciMH